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Brian Halweil
Editor & Publisher
Edible Magazine
May 22, 2012

Brian is a city mouse turned country mouse whose work at Edible allows him to straddle both worlds. Many readers will find this job title enviable, and we don't blame you. The good news is that in addition to being smart as a whip, he is generous with advice and inspiration (some of which you'll find below). Tune in to our Live Chat with Brian this Thursday to keep the conversation going.

When did you know that you wanted to work in food?

I've always liked food, something I inherited from my parents (my dad fishes and gardens; my mom loves to cook). But the first time I imagined I could base my career around it was in college when I heard a lecture from the ecologist Paul Ehrlich. He said that agriculture was the single biggest way in which humans touched the planet. That piqued my interest and I started to immerse myself in agriculture classes, volunteer on farms and soak up as much knowledge about sustainable agriculture as I could. I had plenty of food experiences growing up in New York City, but perhaps it was growing up as a city boy that gave me some nostalgia for rural life and foodways.

How did you get your current good food job?

I was researching my first book, Eat Here, about the local food movement emerging across the globe, and I met the founders of Edible Ojai, the first Edible magazine. A friend/neighbor and I decided to launch Edible East End, to celebrate the food and drink culture of the Hamptons and North Fork of Long Island. A year or so later, some friends in Brooklyn said there needed to be an Edible there too, and we launched Edible Brooklyn. And then a year after that, with some publishing experience under our belts, we built up the wherewithal and gumption to launch Edible Manhattan. At that point, I was able to quit my day job, which was as a researcher for the thinktank Worldwatch Institute.

How did your previous work or life experience prepare you for a good food job?

My first job out of college was as a research assistant at Worldwatch, where I crunched data on global trends and wrote short articles on those trends. It was a dream job; I basically got paid to learn about things I was interested in and to write about it for a mass audience. My writing improved immensely during that time, not just because I was writing often (practice), but because I got to work with Worldwatch's editors (guidance). When I started focusing on agricultural trends, the hands-on work I'd done on farms during college also proved invaluable, because I actually knew what farmers, ag scientists, and agbiz execs were saying when I interviewed them for my articles. Worldwatch, as an information monger, also allowed me to do lots of press interviews and public speaking, skills that I still use in my role as an editor and publisher. In total, being able to communicate effectively is an invaluable skill across most jobs I could imagine.

What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your Good Food Job dream?

Although we've enjoyed success in publishing Edible East End, Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan, we have at times struggled to get to profitability-to make it pay, so to speak. This is partly because we are a magazine with a mission, so much of what we do isn't just about selling ads or promoting events or generating revenue. We spend time building partnerships with city organizations (like GrowNYC and City Harvest) and promoting like-minded causes. This work doesn't generate revenue, but it is essential for our mission, for building our brand, and for giving us the psychic energy to focus on the more mercenary tasks. (Think of a struggling artist who paints houses in her spare time.)

What can you identify as the greatest opportunities in food right now?

I see the opportunities as nearly endless, since "good" food makes up just 3-5% of the American food supply. There are a few areas that seem to be attracting lots of investment, because they are the building blocks of more opportunities. This includes building the infrastructure by which we will eat better and depend more on local sources, including commercial kitchens, wholesale markets, mobile slaughterhouses, rooftop farms, and distribution channels. Related to this is the bloom of food and drink entrepreneurs-aggregating startups like New York Mouth and Five Acre Farms, as well as the myriad small-batch food companies-as well as new policy to support these entrepreneurs-like the Wholesome Wave Foundation's program to encourage medical centers, the Departments of Ag, and Departments of Health in Massachusetts and Connecticut to help underwrite fruit and veggie preseciptions that people can redeem at farmers markets, or New York State's policy to ease regulations for farm wineries, distilleries and breweries if their ingredients are grown locally.

If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be?

I do love barter. So I'm always up for being compensated in coffee beans or pork chops or rum. But I suppose I'd love if my job gave me more time for more Edible experiences-volunteering at farms, cooking with friends, raking clams. It's ironic since Edible's mission is all about encouraging making food and drink a bigger part of our lives. But when you're working really hard in an exciting, growing field, it's easy to skip those experiences. Especially in a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week media cycle. So lately I've been prioritizing making things from scratch (granola bars, soups) with my family, gardening every minute I can squeeze in and having dinner parties. These activities are slow and labor-intensive, almost painfully slow when you think about how many emails you can blast off in the time it takes to weed a row of radishes. But that's the point. Gardening, cooking and eating are all pleasurable excuses to unplug from work.

Can't make it to the LIVE CHAT on Thursday? Leave your questions for Brian in the comments section below.

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